There's one mental trap that far too many athletes stumble into. This trap will rob you of your confidence, make your knees shake from nervousness and completely sabotage your performance. It's this one concentration trap that is single handedly responsible for athletes choking and getting caught up in slumps. What's the trap? The uncontrollables! When you go into a game, match or race and focus on anything that is directly out of your control either before or during the performance, you'll get yourself uptight, kill your confidence and ruin your performance. Your job as an athlete is to know what the uncontrollables are and to consistently keep your focus of concentration away from them. What are the uncontrollables? Your opponent and EVERYTHING about him or her; The playing conditions like weather, wind, temperature, etc; The field conditions; The officiating; The crowd; How big the competition is; How you feel that day; Other people's expectations or how they see you or will think about you; Anything in the past including mistakes, the last time you played this opponent, your previous training, etc.; Your coach and what he/she says to you and how much playing time you get; Your parents and how they react or what they say; The future and the outcome of the contest. Know your uncontrollables and try to keep your focus away from them for peak performance. Should you find yourself suddenly dwelling on one of these factors quickly return your focus to the task at hand. teammates up, not knock them down.